Salma Hayek's acne trauma: "I was fat and broken out"

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Salma Hayek "severely depressed" over skin

She may be one of the world's most beautiful actresses today, but long ago Salma Hayek's acne woes sent her into depression. The star is now opening up about her bleakest days, and what helped her turn it all around.

It's hard to imagine Salma Hayek as overweight, depressed and acne-ridden, but the beautiful actress swears there was a time her skin was so bad she couldn't leave the house. The 45-year-old, now mother to Valentina with billionaire husband Francois-Henri Pinault, recently opened up about her skin trauma to Lucky magazine.

“My skin?! When I was 25 and I left being a soap opera star in Mexico to go try to be a movie star in Hollywood and all of Mexico was laughing at me? And I could barely get work as an extra? You want to talk about bad skin? I had acne. And this acne was so bad, it sent me into a severe, severe depression," Salma Hayek told the magazine.

"Like I couldn’t leave the house. I’d wake up in the morning and lie there and touch my face before I got up, just to prepare myself to look in the mirror!”

The emotional stress Salma Hayek felt over her skin led to other problems as well. She went on to say, "The next stage with that sort of depression is food — too little or too much. Guess what I did? I was fat and broken out. I couldn’t leave the house and I couldn’t pay the rent!"

Thankfully, a visit from an honest friend helped Salma Hayek turn her depression around. "Alfonso Cuarón — amazing director — he came to the house. He did not play it down, he did not try to say, 'Oh you look fine.' He said you can’t do this to yourself and taught me to meditate, relax. I got myself back together!"

Now that her skin is in good condition, Salma Hayek isn't going to risk messing with her face unnecessarily. Speaking of using Botox she shared, "Botox, trust me I’ve been tempted — but I resist! Think about what happens to your muscles — and your skin — if you’re sick and don’t move for a few days. It all atrophies! Plus, if you freeze a muscle in your face, other muscles have to compensate! And once you stop, what does that look like?"

Check out the latest issue of Lucky magazine for more from Salma Hayek!